particles of any spin in curved space [Archive]

Arnold Neumaier

Oct11-04, 01:06 PM

Igor Khavkine

Oct12-04, 10:50 AM

<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no, location=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no ,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>\nOn Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:06:25 +0000, Arnold Neumaier wrote:\n\n> Is there any work on generalizing Wigner\'s classification of irreducible\n> representations of the Poincare group to some sort of classification in\n> curved space, yielding a description of particles of any mass and any spin\n> in a fixed background metric?\n>\n> I know that my question does not make immediate sense, but I am looking\n> for a sort of curved deformation of Wigner\'s constructions.\n\nI know very little about this. But I know that Wald has been working on\nquantum fields in curved space time for a while. He has a monograph about\nthis. There is also one by Birrell & Davies.\n\nWhat I know of Wigner\'s classification suggests the generalization of\nusing the isometry group of the background metric instead of the Poincare\ngroup. However, the isometry group of an arbitrary fixed metric could be\ntrivial which doesn\'t sound very promising.\n\nIgor\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">  View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:06:25 +0000, Arnold Neumaier wrote:

> Is there any work on generalizing Wigner's classification of irreducible
> representations of the Poincare group to some sort of classification in
> curved space, yielding a description of particles of any mass and any spin
> in a fixed background metric?
>
> I know that my question does not make immediate sense, but I am looking
> for a sort of curved deformation of Wigner's constructions.

I know very little about this. But I know that Wald has been working on
quantum fields in curved space time for a while. He has a monograph about
this. There is also one by Birrell & Davies.

What I know of Wigner's classification suggests the generalization of
using the isometry group of the background metric instead of the Poincare
group. However, the isometry group of an arbitrary fixed metric could be
trivial which doesn't sound very promising.

Igor